I want to add my name to the list of Oak Parkers who strongly support the renovation of the green space at Field Center and Mann School. My son attended Mann School, and I was always struck by how the field space and playground areas were not efficiently utilized.

During the more than three decades that we have lived in Oak Park we have continually supported improvements and upgrading of Field park. The joining of the Mann School open space with the park was a natural enhancement along with the addition of baseball fields and soccer fields.

As I learn more about what the Park District of Oak Park is trying to do at Field Center, I become more and more convinced that their plan to put in an Olympic regulation-size soccer field is based on pure deception.

We are Oak Park residents and our daughter goes to Mann School. We have been following the progress of the Field renovations and have been very pleased with everything we have read and seen. We were very proud that Oak Park received a state grant for this purpose.

At a time when we all know how much trees benefit the environment and help combat global warming, and that children benefit greatly by playing freely out in nature, I am astonished that a community such as Oak Park, inhabited by educated people, would even consider cutting down healthy trees to create a soccer field in Field Park. The park district should immediately abandon this ill-advised initiative.

It was a typical July 4th as we made our way home after enjoying the evening with friends at the fireworks display at the high school. Crowded streets were alive with familiar crackles and pops, sounding, we imagined, like small arms fire in some not-so-distant battlefield.